In this article, the authors examine one approach to teaching hard history using an Inquiry Design Model (IDM) curricular loop. A curricular loop allows students to build a deeper understanding of a complex idea and develop a greater facility with the tools of inquiry over a course of study by regularly engaging in an inquiry. The curricular loop…

This comparative case study examines the experiences of two Latinx teachers in the Southeastern United States who navigate critical social studies without substantive support in their schools. Their school spaces and experiences are myriad and overlapping, but generally the teachers describe being outside the traditional social studies curriculum,…

Scholars of citizenship education have long regarded deliberation as the default framework for democratic discussion in the classroom and beyond. Turning to the history and theory of rhetoric, we question why the deliberative model of the Athenian assembly has been developed for social studies pedagogy without including the litigative discourse of…

Contextualized in the critical pedagogies of universal design for learning (UDL) and social justice education, our study aimed to equip teacher candidates (TCs) to provide students with equitable access to learning social studies content knowledge, skills, and processes as a way to equally empower all students to be civically engaged, and thus to…

In this cross-institutional, qualitative case study, two teacher educators in urban teacher education programs identify and analyze the components of our teacher education practice in relation to a vision of compassionate, critical, justice-oriented teacher education. Using Grossman et al.'s concepts of preparation for professional practice as an…

This article aims to explore how social studies teachers understand their role in the delivery of course content. Drawing on data from an interpretive study completed as part of a Master of Education degree, the article investigates how social studies teachers understand their personal ideology as it relates to their teaching, navigate the…

This case study explores the presence of deficit thinking among social studies educators in the State of Florida. Included in this research is an analysis of semi-structured interview data that focused on pivotal experiences and participants' understandings of the connection between social class and academic achievement, mobility, and race and…

This practical book examines how teaching media in high school English and social studies classrooms can address major challenges in our educational system. The authors argue that, in addition to providing underserved youth with access to 21st century learning technologies, critical media education will help improve academic literacy achievement…

This qualitative case study examined South Korean elementary teachers' beliefs about the goals of multicultural education in relation to practices and contexts within social studies instruction. The first research question examined the distinguishing features of South Korean elementary teachers' beliefs about the goals of multicultural education.…

Providing middle-grades students the opportunity to engage meaningfully with controversial public issues (CPIs), socioscientific issues (SSIs), or a framework for social justice can be very dangerous work professionally. However, rather than encouraging teacher candidates to eschew controversy, ensuring they receive sufficient training in how to…

Here we share findings from a 9-month qualitative case study involving a school-university professional development inquiry into how teachers develop, implement, and interpret community-based pedagogies (CBPs), an asset-based approach to curriculum that acknowledges mandated standards but begins with recognizing and valuing local knowledge. After…

This article highlights some of the cultural barriers that exist for Hmong people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ), while placing these barriers in an historical context. It uncovers differences and similarities found between the experiences of queer Hmong youth and the larger population of queer youth living…

Drawing on my work in the U.S., I briefly discuss four related hallmarks of teaching for social justice in diverse classrooms, supported by research on their impact on students. They include explicitly recognizing and working with students' culture as a basis for learning, teaching key concepts in the curriculum through content and examples drawn…

Teacher knowledge, the sources of that knowledge, and the day-to-day use of that knowledge have become focal points of contemporary research on teacher education. As this body of research has found, a teacher's knowledge base and her subsequent practice is a composite of her beliefs and identities (Britzman, 2003), experiences (Lortie, 1975),…

Issues of diversity and social justice are critical for teacher education as the student population in the United States becomes increasingly diverse ethnically, racially, socially, and linguistically. It has been traditionally assumed that social studies, more than other curricular areas, should deal with these issues, especially in raising good…